Burke knows the region well. He's one of the few Western journalists who has covered the region extensively for years, speaks the lingo and has excellent contacts across the entire political spectrum. But most importantly he operates independently and thus outside of the embedded coalition propaganda machine.



But there are other excellent journalists. Fisk's region is more towards Israel/Lebanon - but he too has excellent contacts and met Bin Laden twice, I think. Others write for English language publications in India. And then there are guys such as Christian Parenti who, whilst only visiting occasionally, publishes first rate work.



I don't know anything about Benitz but if he's embedded I'm really not that much interested. He may well be a perfectly decent guy but journalists attached to, and thus entirely dependent on, the military are automatically suspect. Movie studios don't throw huge junkets for critics because they like them. They do it because they know it will make a negative review much less likely. The same principle stands for war correspondents. If you eat and sleep and fight alongside a bunch of guys who you get to know and like over a period of six months it will take tremendous character to trash them if they deserve it. And if you do possess such be prepared to see your media accreditation revoked at CENTCOM.



In any case, what better viewpoint of the military campaign can you take than [url=http://www1.rollingstone.com/extras/RS_REPORT.pdfDaniel Davis' report?[/url The Lt. Col. did two tours of Afghanistan (as well as two in Iraq) and his job was to assess the success of the campaign to the Pentagon. I should point out that Davis is not far from the age where he is entitled to retire with full benefits. With this report he not only risks his job but his pension, too!







I expect ISAF will leave pretty soon. But the merc army will stay. The geopolitics of the region mean it's too important (in the eyes of the US) to walk away. Once Obama is re-elected or the Republicans get in we'll be gearing up for some heavy-duty Iranian action and there's simply no way they'll leave Iran under sanctions with an open border. It's estimated there are anywhere up to one million unaccountable mercs running around in Iraq. We may see a similar figure in Afghanistan.

For those who haven't followed the link - here is the opening paragraph of Davis' report:



[i"Senior ranking US military leaders have so distorted the truth when communicating with the US Congress and American people in regards to conditions on the ground in Afghanistan that the truth has become unrecognizable. This deception has damaged America’s credibility among both our allies and enemies, severely limiting our ability to reach a political solution to the war in Afghanistan. It has likely cost American taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars Congress might not otherwise have appropriated had it known the truth, and our senior leaders’ behavior has almost certainly extended the duration of this war. The single greatest penalty our Nation has suffered, however, has been that we have lost the blood, limbs and lives of tens of thousands of American Service Members with little to no gain to our country as a consequence of this deception."[/i



That's about as damning an indictment of a senseless war as you'll find.

Hmmmmm. Middle ranking officer goes on one man crusade after talking to his Pastor, and deciding he knows better than anyone else, could just as easily be the headline. I'm sure there's an element of truth in what he reports, but in the final analysis, its simply one guys personal [url=http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/06/world/asia/army-colonel-challenges-pentagons-afghanistan-claims.html?_r=1&scp=8&sq=scott%20shane&st=cseopinion[/url, and has not attracted a great deal of support, either in Washington or, as you would expect, further up the [url=http://atwar.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/02/08/pentagon-counters-dim-assessment-of-afghan-war/military[/url food chain. Surely, it is to expected that the best possible spin would be applied to any information released to the public, despite this campaign being the most open and media scrutinised than anything previously reported?



The overall lack of progress is there for all to see, but it would take a couple of generations before you could bring about a mindset change in a country as large and poor as Afghanistan. You would have to be extremely naive to expect a one size, instant fix solution to work in this part of the globe. I expect the good Colonel's outrage may in part be fuelled by both the cost in dollars and Army casualties, as much as anything else. After all, is there any Military more Gung Ho/Can Do than the Americans? It would be interesting to see what actual boots on the ground combat experience Davies has under his belt. I suspect he may be what our Stateside chums so charmingly call a "REMF"



There is however, well documented and visible evidence in many areas of a return to normality, with the expulsion of insurgents and security being handed over to Afghan Forces. There is already a shift in Military thinking from pursuing an anti insurgency policy, which is very labour intensive, to a more focussed anti terrorist operation.



Which is where we came in....

Davis isn't the first officer to come to this conclusion. There are several other well-researched reports if you care to look. I'm not sure what relevance discussions with his pastor have. Maybe you could tell me?



And, seriously, what do you expect the military's response to be? There are an awful lot of careers at stake here - not to mention billion dollar arms deals, industry jobs, geopolitical ambitions etc.



There were ample well-researched reports writing the Vietnam campaign off as early as the introduction of ground troops. How many saw the light of day until Daniel Ellsberg blew the lid off the deception? Even then they weren't taken seriously. Hell, I could go back to the Battle of Jutland where Jellicoe laughed off criticism of his handling of the Grand Fleet and even went so far as to suppress the report which proved why half-a-dozen of his dreadnoughts blew up with nary a shot being fired in anger. Secrecy and the military go hand in hand.



Look, it really comes down to who you think is more likely to understand what conditions are like on the ground in Afghanistan. Newspapers such as the New York Times (commonly referred to as American Officials Say - even by other journalists!), five star generals (many of whom have either limited or no combat experience), the TV or the combat veteran with complete access asked to submit a full appraisal of the entire conflict? Surely a middle-ranking officer is the man most likely to see the entire picture?



And I should make the point that Davis is by no means a radical lefty. He's as much a part of the establishment as anyone else even if he does have disagreements. TBH, I don't think he goes far enough.







Well, I've provided some of my evidence. Perhaps you can show me some of yours? Who has provided your "well-documented" evidence? How do you define "normality" etc.? I mean, according to guys like Burke attitudes such as the Taliban's are not that far from normality anyhow.

I could speculate that perhaps he had some sort of epiphany, which was reinforced by his subsequent viewing of his favourite movie, which then provided the impetus for his one man campaign. The only two people who really know are Davis and his Pastor

.





I excpected the response to be exactly as I've previously stated, they'd put the best spin on it.







Your last sentence raised a smile. It is the nature of the beast. In any case, isn't Truth the first casualty of War? Personally, I'm a tad disappointed you didn't offer up an explanation for the missing 9th Legion....







If that middle ranking Officer could be shown to have an extensive combat background, backed up with a good military record throughout his career, then I would tend to agree with you.

However, I'm still not fully convinced about Davis. One item in particular shows his lack of front line experience. He complains about the Taliban kidnapping and killing an Afghan Police Officer, 500 yards away from their compound, and witters on about the American influence not even extending as far as you can see.

Any soldier that has been in combat over there knows that the insurgents are very good at setting their ambushes, and live IEDS have been found placed within 10 yards of Patrol Bases. Here's a more [url=http://ricks.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2012/02/20/lt_col_davis_afghan_report_he_talks_a_good_game_but_there_s_not_much_to_itROBUST REBUTTAL[/url







As I recall Mugwump, you were provided with the facts which showed your claims, re Afghan civilian casualties, were simply a product of your own fertile imagination! Your subsequent sidestep to attempt to include Iraq was duly noted.



I refuse to believe that you have never watched a documentary,or read an informed newspaper column detailing the ongoing improvements in Afghanistan over the last few years.



If you can hold on for another 3 weeks, our Nick can give you an up to date resume, complete with photographs. I could link you to various MOD blogs/videos, but I suspect they're not your cup of tea. Or point you in the direction of official UN stats that show the staggering number of refugees, encouraged by the improving situation, returning from Pakistan back to their homeland.



I could,.....but as penance for your left wing rhetoric, I think you should do your own googling. Something along the lines of "Improvements in Afghanistan since 2001" should suffice.



I'd also have a small dish of salt to hand.....

I *could* say you're attempting to muddy the waters by spinning an irrelevant point into an implied character weakness.



Oh, I did.







Isn't four combat tours enough?







And this proves we're in control in what way?







A robust rebuttal written by the former special assistant to Paul Wolfowitz, speechwriter for the Joint Chiefs of Staff and one of the architects of the Iraq war? You're really bringing out the big guns insofar as objective analysis is concerned.





BTW, how many combat tours has Collins served in Afghanistan? Indeed, has Collins served a combat tour [ianywhere[/i? From my - albeit brief - research he appears to be a retired career staff officer.







You provided a small subset of what *all* organisations estimate to be a huge number of civilian deaths. If you dispute this you can't be taken seriously. And as one of the reasons for the invasion of Iraq was a phoney link to the same group we are engaged against in Afghanistan it is entirely relevant.







I've just supplied an informed and detailed report - written by a four combat term veteran with complete access. I can supply others, too. The only evidence you have supplied so far is a critique written by Paul Wolfowitz's Washington stooge and mouthpiece. He may even be the same Joseph Collins linked to Aegis LLC and Tim Spicer, who the Americans describe as [i“an individual with a history of supporting excessive use of force against a civilian population [who vigorously defends [human rights abuses”. [/iClassy.

[/i





Or are we playing a game where my evidence is speculation whereas anything you provide is "informed"?







MOD blogs?





And "our Nick" is employed in what role, precisely? Does he have the same level of experience and access as Davis? Or does he work for Aegis knocking over democratically elected governments for corporate gain?









Point me in any direction you like.







And I'll get, erm ... improvements? Are the contrary suddenly not important? If we could judge both quantitatively and it were found the former outweighed the latter would it suddenly not matter?